e Christian church to-day accept the interpretation of the
prophets and of Jesus, or that of early heathenism and later
Judaism? Does the interpretation of the prophets and of Jesus
furnish a basis on which all classes in the state can unite in
appreciating and in jealously guarding the Sabbath? Does the
acceptance of one or the other of these interpretations
fundamentally affect our actual observance of the Sabbath? Our
motives and our spirit? Our attitude toward our fellow men?

IV.

IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN'S LOYALTY TO PARENTS

It is generally recognized by scientists that the place of animals
in the scale of being is dependent upon the length of their period
of infancy. The lower forms of animal life are mature almost as
soon as they are born. Minnows never come under the care of their
genitors, but are independent as soon as they are hatched. The
young of the less developed quadrupeds are soon weaned and
forgotten by their parents. The longer the young remain in the
care of their parents the higher the form of the animal. The great
difference between men and most of the higher animals is thought by
many to be dependent upon the length of childhood, and the
consequent care and attention given by the parents. Even among
human beings it is scarcely too much to say that the longer the
time of education and training under proper supervision lasts, the
more successful finally at the end of life the man will be. When
one considers that Aristotle, who is perhaps generally accepted as
the world's greatest thinker, associated with his great teacher,
Plato, twenty years, until he was thirty-eight years of age and
produced nearly all his important works only after that time, we
may see one example of the profound importance of training. The
care of parents for their children throughout all of their early
years would naturally imply loyalty of children to the parents as a
mark of gratitude for the time and affection expended upon them.

In one of his characteristic poems, filled with wise suggestion,
Lowell speaks of obedience as that "great tap root" of the state
and civilization. The habit of obedience is one of the finest
characteristics in family life, and obedience to parents normally
becomes obedience to law in the citizen, one of the surest bonds of
society and one of the most necessary conditions of social progress.

This fact was so fully recognized in the patriarchal stage of
society that the head